Villarreal pleaded guilty to conspiracy to fix prices and allocate the market for transmigrante forwarding agency services, conspiracy to monopolize that market, and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by extortion, the Antitrust Division said.
Transmigrantes transport used vehicles and other goods from the United States through Mexico for resale in Central America, and the Los Indios Bridge in Texas is one of the few crossing points available to them. According to the department, Villarreal and his co-defendants fixed prices for forwarding agency services and created a centralized entity called the "Pool" to collect and divide revenues, limit competition and increase prices.
Forwarding agencies outside the conspiracy were required to join and pay into the Pool, the department said. Pool members monitored whether agencies charged the agreed-upon prices and made required payments, and agencies also had to pay extortion fees including a "piso" for every transaction processed in the industry.
"Antitrust criminals deserve lengthy sentences for the economic — and in this case physical — violence they sow," said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel W. Glad of the Antitrust Division. He said the division would "continue working to incarcerate antitrust criminals and hold accountable the remaining co-defendants in this scheme."
U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei of the Southern District of Texas said Villarreal "chose to join a criminal enterprise that seized control of an industry through threats and violence, rigged prices against legitimate businesses, and laundered its proceeds — and now, he is headed to federal prison." Ganjei added that "although the conspiracy may be finished, the Southern District of Texas is just getting started."
Acting Assistant Director Gregory Heeb of the FBI Criminal Division said "the use of violence and intimidation to threaten and remove competition will not be tolerated." Acting Special Agent in Charge John A. Pasciucco of HSI's San Antonio Field Office said the case "highlights the significant danger posed by transnational criminal organizations operating near our borders."
Eight other defendants have been convicted in the case, and seven have been sentenced, the department said. The group's leader, Carlos Martinez, 39, of McAllen, received an 11-year prison term. Three others charged in the superseding indictment — Rigoberto Brown, Miguel Hipolito Caballero Aupart and Diego Ceballos-Soto — remain fugitives.
The case was investigated by HSI and the FBI and prosecuted by Senior Litigation Attorney John Davis and Trial Attorneys Brittany E. McClure, Anne Veldhuis and Michael G. Lepage of the Antitrust Division; Deputy Chief Kelly Pearson of the Criminal Division's Violent Crime and Racketeering Section; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander L. Alum.